The present invention relates to a golfing mat which comprises an upper layer and distance means provided for positioning the upper layer on a distance D from a reference layer, the upper layer of the golfing mat providing a platform for teeing-off a golfing ball, at least a part of the upper layer, when exerting a force on the mat during teeing-off, being resilient in height direction of the golfing mat.
Golfing mats are often used by golfers to practice teeing-off. These golfing mats lie on grass, concrete or any other ground floor surface. In particular with less skilled players who only relatively infrequently hit the ball directly and centrally, the problem is encountered that the club not only hits the ball during teeing-off, but also hits the golfing mat before or after hitting the ball. Because the teeing-off golfing mats offer only a minimal amount of damping when hitting the golfing at high speed, the club is subjected to an extreme loading which is transferred to the person holding the club. This often results in elbow, shoulder, back and knee injuries. The un-damped ground contact by the club involves a high risk to damaging of the club. Since almost the entire kinetic energy of the club is transferred to the golfing mat, a cutting-off of the upper layer of the golfing mat when the teeing-off is done incorrectly is likely to occur. As a result, golfing mats are subjected to a lot of wear and can become unusable very quickly.
In order to overcome the above mentioned problems, golfing mats have been developed which are made of a material or combination of materials that offer a certain amount of flexibility to the golfing mat. JP8193305 describes for instance a golfing mat which comprises a thin unwoven cloth applied between a layer of artificial turf and a main body, the main body comprising rubber pieces and foam particles. The layer of artificial turf forms the upper layer of the golfing mat on which the golfing ball is teed-off. The combination of these materials provides for a certain cushioning effect and for absorption of part of the kinetic energy of the club when hitting the golfing mat, thus reducing the risk to damaging clubs and players. However, the amount of cushioning provided and thus the amount of kinetic energy absorption is still too small and cannot be varied once the mat has been installed. Furthermore, when the golfing mats are used frequently, the cushioning effect of the golfing mat decreases in time.
Other golfing mats make use of elastic straps or yarns fixed to the mat to obtain the damping effect. For instance, DE-A1-3022461 describes a tee-off golfing mat with an impact absorbing layer, which comprises a spaced apart upper and lower material layer portion, which are made of single-thread or multi-thread yarn and which are connected to each other by elastic pile threads. However, each time the club hits the golfing mat, the elastic pile threads are stretched out. As a result of this and taking into account the frequent use of these mats, the elasticity of the elastic pile threads decreases quickly, resulting in fast reduction of the damping effect of the golfing mat.
The known golfing mats have the common disadvantage that their elasticity or damping property decreases quickly with time.